Popular with walkers, hikers, and others that enjoy great outdoor activities is the use of walking aid devices such as walking or hiking sticks or poles. These walking sticks generally comprise of shaft with two ends, one end locating a grip by which the stick is grasped by the operator and another end supporting a walking tip against the ground. Generally, a pair of such devices are used by hikers and alike to help steady their gait through passage among uneven terrain; shift some of weight of any load they are carrying (e.g., backpack or supplies) to their arms/walking sticks; reduce stress on feet, ankles, knees, hips and back; or to otherwise further aid the hiker's propulsion during the walk or hike.
These sticks have also been used in providing self-defense or protection for their operator. Generally, this type of self-defense usage occurs in non-urban wildlife areas, such forests and alike, where the hiker can come into contact with much larger (and potentially more dangerous) wildlife. This contact becomes more frequent as human encroachment increases in normally isolated wildlife areas. There have been incidents where chance human encounters with bear, cougar (i.e., mountain lion), and alike have ended badly for hikers (being mauled or killed by the animal) as hikers have accidently strayed into such animal proximity that was the subject of the presence of the animals' young or food source. Further, such former isolated wildlife areas that are seeing an increase in human visitation can become the scenes of illegal activities, where criminal predation upon walkers, hikers and other outdoor persons may occur with increasing frequency.
To address such matters, some walking sticks have been constructed to augment their inherent physical defensive capabilities in hitting or poking to fending off attacks. These augmentations may include operator-controlled, aerosol emissions (e.g., sprays, foams, streams, or combinations thereof) containing ingredients that may act as irritants to humans and other animals. Such irritants may include oleo capsicum (“pepper spray”); phenacyl chloride (CN); 2-chlorobenzalmalononitrile (CS or “tear gas”) and the like, where the effective contact of such irritants with the skin, tear ducts, eyes, mouth, nose of the attacker may produce a very unpleasant reaction/sensation to the attacker that ranges from driving off the attacker to actually causing the incapacitation of the attacker.
Walking sticks that have integrated aerosol irritant dispensing systems into their construction may orient their irritant discharge through stick's walking tip upon activating a mechanical trigger that is part of the body of the stick. This type of construction may be seen as complicated in construction and cumbersome in use where seconds, moments, may count (e.g., a charging bear.) Such walking sticks generally need to be moved from a substantially vertical orientation to a more horizontal position to properly aim the dispensing walking tip at the offending/threatening entity. This pivoting stick movement may first require the operator to shift its stance to redistribute any supported weight off of the walking stick. Depending upon the stick's grip-type (e.g., a vertical vs. horizontal orientation) and operator's hand position upon the grip, the motion may further require the operator to shift its hand position as well (also increasing reaction time to the threat) to activate trigger (and deactivate any safety) mechanisms.
What is needed therefore is a self-defense walking stick, which generally utilizes an aerosol irritant discharge system that substantially allows an operator to activate the system with a minimal repositioning of walking stick and a minimal repositioning of the operator's hand upon on the walking stick to reduce the time necessary to the bring the device to bear upon its target and to issue the aerosol irritant emission or discharge at the target.